This blog is maintained by the Wenatchee School District's Instructional Technology Department to keep staff updated on tips and techniques for navigating the digital world. The content on this website in no way represents the opinions or beliefs of WSD.

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Monday, August 25, 2014

Defeat the Kids!

Those darned kids. They'll figure out ways to mess up the computers (sometimes even on accident) to the place where you might get annoyed at the little cherubs. Here are a few of their favorite tricks and how to combat them. Apple has built in a way for you to make your screen inverse (black is white, etc.) for reading in low light. I use it sometimes when I have my laptop next to me but it's too bright and I'm not really using it. If you press Control + Option + Command + 8 it will magically invert your screen. Press those keys again to change it back.

Also, sometimes your screen will be zoomed way in and whenever you move your mouse it will also move your screen. Annoying! This is something Apple has put in to give those who can't read the small fonts a way to zoom in. But when kids are trying to do the trick above they often miss a key and end up with a zoomed screen. To turn it on/off press Option + Command + 8. So now you can foil those pesky no-gooders whose goal is to wreak havoc on theirs and others computer screens. It also makes for a good practical joke for unsuspecting colleagues.

Update: Here's another way to foil those sneaky kids who make their computer "speak" every time they move their mouse over something. With a couple of keyboard strokes they can turn this feature on and you can turn it off. Command + F5 will do the trick (or Function + Command + F5 if you have a newer computer). Take that sneaky students!